Greg Hinz On Politics

Goodbye, Mayor Daley: the good and bad in a heck of a record

I was only able to catch a bit of the City Council love-fest, as Alderman Ed Burke (14th) quoted Irish folklore and poets in praise of a record "unlike any other mayor in America," Carrie Austin (34th) cried when relating how Mr. Daley made her Budget Committee chairwoman, and Mike Zalewski (24th) joked that being in the Cabinet of the notoriously demanding mayor "isn't easy."

The aldermen were right to take note of Mr. Daley's final meeting with a council that, if truth be told, he considered irrelevant at best.

In 22 years in office, this driven, savvy, flawed and at times just plain old impossible mayor has demonstrated the best and the worst of the Chicago political tradition — mostly the former. So here are some goodbyes of my own.

At his best, Mr. Daley — "the little guy," as the press fondly dubbed him a long time ago — had as good a sixth sense of what was needed as any official I've ever met. Sort of the converse of a tin ear.

He ended the racial strife of the "council wars" era of 25 and 30 years ago. Those of you who are younger may not realize just how close those battles came to destroying this city as a place in which anyone could live.

In that vein, he correctly identified Chicago Public Schools and public housing as the two agencies that most needed to be remade — top to bottom — and set forth on both with a vengeance. Neither was totally successful, particularly the schools turnaround, but Chicago is better for both.

With the help of a booming economy, he turned around the most critical chunk of Chicago's job base: the greater Loop. A city that once was losing corporate headquarters by the month now is attracting them. A whole panoply of thriving neighborhoods has grown up as a result — the Near South and Near West sides, Bucktown, Lakeview and Logan Square — neighborhoods that would not exist as they are without downtown's jobs.

Mr. Daley correctly targeted modernization of O'Hare International Airport as critical to the city's economic health. He was "green" far before it was popular. He — or wife Maggie Daley, or both — instinctively realized that making the city physically attractive was necessary to attract the bright young things straight out of college to power Chicago's new knowledge economy.

But . . .

Little by little, he broke the bank. Each of the above exacted a price, and when bad economic times hit, even innovative steps such as selling off the Chicago Skyway weren't enough.

He failed to fully appreciate — along with a lot of others — the impact of Chicago's changing economy on the African-American community. No one yet has quite figured out why Chicago lost 200,000 residents in the past decade, the vast majority of them black. But a continued departure will clobber the city just as surely as did the white flight of the '50s and '60s and '70s.

He lost touch/grew too comfortable with things such as the city's huge tax-increment financing system. TIFs have a crucial role to play, but by allowing them to bloat, Mr. Daley created a mess that Mayor-elect Rahm Emanuel will have to struggle to fix, if TIFs are to survive at all.

The worst sin is one of omission. Instead of remaking Chicago government and political culture top to bottom, Mr. Daley let it co-opt him. His own alderman and top aides, close associates and even members of his family: By the end, all of them were out to make a buck for No. 1.

One other thing needs to be said, though, and on this, Mr. Burke and I agree.

Mr. Daley likely would have been elected to a new term. But that would have been a mistake. The times require a new person with new vision and new energy and new ideas, and Mr. Daley's very passion for the city led him to the right conclusion.

In the end, passion is about all you can expect in public life. You want someone who takes his best shot, then moves aside when he's taken it.

Mr. Daley fits that mold. Not to sound like an alderman, but good luck, sir. Don't be a stranger. Out of power does not mean out of ideas.